To determine if a biometric reference template has been revoked, a relying party must check its revocation status to ensure that the template is still valid, even though its validity period has not yet expired. Not checking the revocation status of a biometric reference template exposes a relying party to risk of accepting as a valid template, a template that has been revoked by the template issuer. However, checking the revocation status of a biometric reference template can reveal the identity of the biometric reference template holder. As such, there is a need to provide an efficient mechanism for use in checking the revocation status of a biometric reference template, while preserving privacy of the individual whose biometric data is contained on a biometric reference template, referred to as a “template holder”.